Fire Station, Recreation Figure In Pines Plan

September 15, 1985|By Peter Aronson, Staff Writer

PEMBROKE PINES — A fifth fire station, new recreation areas, a 5-million gallon water tank and an enlarged sewer system are some of the projects included in the city`s five-year, $37.76 million capital improvement plan.

The plan also includes $17 million for a multi-purpose Human Resource Center. Half the money will be provided by the state. The rest will be provided by the city, users such as the county and social service agencies, and by grants and foundations.

The five-year plan, covering fiscal years 1986-87 through 1990-91, is required by the state to be part of the city`s 1985-86 budget.

The $37.76 million comes from a variety of funding sources, including property taxes, fees, low-interest loans from the Florida League of Cities and state grants.

City Manager Woody Hampton said the plan allows city department heads to anticipate new responsibilities as the city grows as well as maintain service to residents.

``You don`t run a city just for today, you run it for the future,`` Hampton said.

He said the city establishes a ``flexible`` five-year plan every year and that the plan should not result in large tax increases.

To meet the needs of the community as it grows west of Flamingo Road, $823,000 is allocated for fiscal year 1990-91 for the city`s fifth fire station, to be built west of Interstate 75. Construction of a fourth fire station at the eastern end of the Century Village development is scheduled to begin sometime this fall.

According to the plan, $1.35 million will be spent through the 1989-90 fiscal year to build ballfields, tennis and paddleball courts, an olympic-size swimming pool and other recreational facilities on 14 acres to be given to the city by The Bankers Land Co., a developer. The park will be north of the Human Resource Center, which is planned for 20 acres between Flamingo Road and and Interstate 75, west of C.B. Smith Park.

Another park, on a yet to be determined 30-acre site west of Interstate 75, will be built in fiscal year 1990-91 for $750,000, according the plan. Hampton said that land will also be donated to the city by a developer.

After subtracting the $17 million for the Human Resource Center, the biggest chunk of the $37.76 million will be used to ensure that the city has an adequate water supply and a means to dispose of sewage.

The city now has four water tanks with capacities ranging from 500,000 gallons to one million gallons. The new 5-million gallon tank, projected to cost $1.37 million, will be needed as the population grows, Hampton said.

Another $4.64 million, set aside mostly to design and build new water mains, has been allocated in the plan.

``People don`t realize that the city needs wells, pumps to bring it out of the wells, a treatment process to remove impurities, tanks to store the water and transmitters to take it out of the tanks and carry it into the water mains,`` Hampton said.

It`s projected that a total of $2.79 million will be spent from 1986 through 1991 on the city`s sewage disposal system to insure that the system west of Flamingo Road has sufficiant capacity to accommodate the people expected to move there.